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It seems impossible when she recalls it, but Kathleen Kohut, MSN, CIC, CNOR, director of infection prevention at Cone Health System in Winston-Salem, NC, tells a story of an infection prevention department that was left out of the discussion of meeting infection prevention standards for an upcoming Joint Commission survey.
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If it seems as if your hospital takes two steps forward and one back when trying to conquer healthcare-associated infection rates, you arent alone.
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Every few months, another big headline is splashed across the mainstream media, touting the top 100 hospitals, or the best cancer doctors, or your citys number-one neurologist. But what is missing from these stories is the fact that often, a facility or physician can rank in different places on different lists fabulous on one, middling on another.
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Next seasons trivalent influenza vaccines will contain the same strains as this years vaccine but its still important to get the annual flu vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Hospital intensive care units (ICUs) in the U.S. report a high level of infection prevention policies in place, but the numbers fall off sharply when actual adherence to the interventions are factored in, researchers report.
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There can be murky situations in which the right interpretation of HIPAA is not obvious, says Patricia Wagner, JD, an attorney with the law firm of Epstein Becker Green in Washington, DC.
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A proposed change to HIPAA might help healthcare providers alert law enforcement agencies that a persons mental illness should be considered when allowing a gun purchase, an action that is made difficult and sometimes impossible by the convergence of HIPAA and state laws.
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Reducing prescriptions of high-risk antibiotics in hospitals by 30% could lead to 26% fewer cases of deadly diarrhea infections, according to new advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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Overly strict compliance with HIPAA threatens patient safety and quality of care, according to a report from the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, DC.
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With providers increasingly skittish about violating HIPAA but uncertain about exactly what is required, some IT professionals see an opportunity to improve data security, says Mick Coady, principal and co-leader of the Health Information Privacy and Security Practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the financial services and consulting company in St. Louis.
